How many times have you dropped a phone in water? A puddle, bucket, bathtub, lake, toilet (don't act like it doesn't happen)... whatever. Phone attracting bodies of water are seemingly everywhere, and unless you're willing to put your phone in a ginormous waterproof case, once that beautiful piece of tech meets the life-affirming liquid substance, it's usually hosed (but sometimes rice can help).

Enter HzO, a company who looks to make our devices fully submergible. This is possible by a special coating on all of the electronic components inside the device, a process which takes place during manufacturing. The best part (aside from the fact that you can play with your phone in the bathtub) is that it shouldn't add any retail cost to the device. Bam.

Did you notice the Galaxy S II in the background? It didn't even have a battery cover. Impressive.

So can phones that are already manufactured get this done? Because I'd be willing to pay for something that would this cool.

Dodd

From what I have read online, the waterproofing has to be done during the manufacturing process. :\

sgtguthrie

It also says that in the article we're commenting on ;-) oops...lol!

sriracha

it also asks on Liquipel's website what device you have, and return shipping zip code..

$59, $69, and $79 for their services, plus shipping.

BobbyPhoenix

So then that means Apple for the iPhone demo phone, and Samsung for the SGII demo phone, put this stuff on during manufacturing. Interesting that they already have it in place to do it in the manufacturing line.

J-Dog

I would imagine (/hope) that they could modify it some how to protect current electronics. Though it'd undoubtedly void the warranty (assuming you haven't already done so by rooting/custom rom'ing, etc).

Of course, on the other hand... Why go through the bother of waterproofing a single core phone when you could just upgrade to a pre-waterproofed quadcore ;)

Liquipel I believe fills the 'cavities' of the phone with a type of Gel. Same thing a lot of car manufacturers do on their electronics. It makes the phone heavy but it works. The HzO method is different, it's a thin film/coating on the electronics, not a Gel. The HzO method can only be done during manufacturing where-as the Liquipel method can be done to existing phones, since it's essentially injecting non-conducting Gel throughout the phone's internals.

[deXter]

That's not correct. According to Liquipel, they coat a thin layer of the substance.. which is 1000 times thinner than a human hair.

I had to watch the "Liquipel" In Action video several times ;)
There's also NeverWet (http://www.neverwet.com), but it doesn't appear to be on the market yet.

Chris Webster

This. Is. AMAZING! And I've haven't ever dropped my phone in water, but I would LOVE to have this just to play around with and not have to worry around water!

Jesus Otero

http://hzo.me/oem/
I didn't know they released the Samsung Incredible, I thought that was due next in Q2!
/s

Stewart Higgins

Rice stocks have plummeted.

kyle

Easy to say that manufactures don't want this because they make money on water damaged phone replacements. buttttttt like anything, it only takes one manufactureer to do it, and others will be forced to follow or they will now be behind.

Mark

Gorilla Glass 2 + HzO Coating and a phone/tablet would rock!

J-Dog

I'd like to have something like this done to my desktop...

Granted, its not as likely to be dropped in the toilet or pool... BUT... When I was on campus, the sprinkler right over top of my desk could have always gone off sending out 80gallons per second fubar'ing the desktop & my thesis in the process...

And with it completely water proofed... You could always use actual water & fish for that mineral oil aquarium case mod...

Josh

This is why manufactures do not do this... because people take it litterally. This is not guranteed to make your phone waterproof, it is not part of your warranty... if it does stop working b/c of water and it does have this coating... they are Not going to just give you a new phone. It is a THIN layer of coating... the article should state this is water repellent... not proofing.. the devices can easily get damaged by the liquid.. a small defect in manufacturing, stress crack, dumb people continually dunking their electronics, this does not protect the battery... This is not a toy.. it is an insurance policy that does not gurantee it's work. P.S. this has been out for YEARS... http://golden-shellback.com/